Have you ever done your Ancestry

fuzzybuddy said:
I'd like to find out about my ancestry.. I'm of French Canadian descent. I don't think there another Canuk in the area, yet my neighbor is related to Henry VIII. But I kind of noticed that somehow everybody was related to Henry VIII , or Charlamagne, Cleopatra etc. I kind of wonder how accurate this is. And secondly, I'm wondering about some problems- my dad was an orphan, and our last name is one of the most used name in Canada- there are statues, towns,, streets, islands named after people with the same surname. How do I know that this John Smith is my relative John Smith, and not that John Smith.
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I've had similar problems.. trying to find ancestors in Quebec with the surname Beaumont.
 

No. Our maternal grandmother typed out several pages of genealogical info. Yes, people were from somewhere or were special somehow, but it had nothing to do with me.

Our father was sort of an orphan and was vague about his past.

About 40 years ago, someone contacted me because we had the same last name. I wasn't interested.

About 10 years ago, I was surprised when someone mentioned that I "might" have Mohawk blood. It was interesting from a historic and sociological standpoint: proof once again that racism exists and families have secrets.

It might explain some of my father's behavior, but only part of it. So it's not that important to me.
 
My cousin, on Father's side did out history. Our grandparents came over from Italy. She did it all pre wide spread, internet use, so mainly shoe leather and many letters and phone calls. Luckily, while not really fluent, she was fluent enough in Italian to be able to write letters and make phone calls. She went back a few generations. It was great.
 
for many who live in the south, tracing ancestory is difficult because the union burned the courthouses in the southern states during the civil war destroying marriage/birth/deed information. I had an aunt who did some ancestry using what could be found in existing county records and family bibles..
 
What started me on the "quest" was learning that my father's grandfather was orphaned, 1st question was: is my (his) family surname that of the birth family, or the adoptive family? So I did traditional genealogy research for several years(books, microfilm) and encountered a lot of surprises. White Southern families were reluctant to broach the subject of forebearers having held slaves, never heard one word about it ever. I found my way to afrigeneas.com and learned of the line of Black cousins with whom I shared a common ancestor with. Some many ways to get sidetracked, I did discover that my/my g.grandfather's surname was from the birth family. Even though I scoured wills, real estate deeds and documents, marriage records and such, I could never conclusively trace that surname back to an original ancestor/immigrant. However, several family lines were well documented already,even back to the 1600s(Switzerland, Germany).

Family Tree DNA reports my genetic origins as follows:
FTdna.jpg

2FTdna.jpg
 
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Nathan said:
White Southern families were reluctant to broach the subject of forebearers having held slaves, never heard one word about it ever. I found my way to afrigeneas.com and learned of the line of Black cousins with whom I shared a common ancestor with.
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Interesting. I have a number of slaveowners as ancestors, always wondered if I had black cousins. I did try the afrigeneas website, but the family names were things like Jones and Williams, too common I guess.

You are right the older generations who might have known something would never have talked about. But times change, we do talk about it now, just don't know anything...
 
Alligatorob said:
Interesting. I have a number of slaveowners as ancestors, always wondered if I had black cousins. I did try the afrigeneas website, but the family names were things like Jones and Williams, too common I guess.

You are right the older generations who might have known something would never have talked about. But times change, we do talk about it now, just don't know anything...
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Oh yes, surnames like Jones or Williams(or Smith!) are tough to track. However, on my maternal side the surname Rüdisühli is not only a bit out of the ordinary, as it turns out, most every Rüdisühli in America is related.
Back to afrigeneas: I had made an inquiry about my g.g.(or g.g.g.) grandfather, as I had some indication(census entry?) and a member there recognized the name, and sent me a document listing the whole decendency of slaves from my ancestor.
 
There is a legendary Indian Princess in my family tree, so I did the DNA thing. Sigh, not a drop of Indian blood. I've always admired those of the Jewish ethnicity, but not a drop of that either. )-8
 
My wife always thought she had some kind of native American ancestor, through some family story handed down. However, her DNA results showed her to be 100% European.
 
Nathan said:
Oh yes, I'm not feeling 'long-winded' today so I'll just be brief.
Mom's side:
Swiss-German, with one g.grandmother that's Irish, and whose lineage I discovered was documented back at least to the 1600s.
Dad's side:
Maternal side- German, documented back to original immigrant(1717) from Palatinate, Germany.
Paternal side- Incomplete, 19th century ancestors living in a heavily German community(Salisbury, NC); suspect connection to Welsh colony in Maryland.
I should give Ancestry.com another go, I somewhat resent that they are charging me access to my family history, but am starting to accept that perhaps paying for per-compiled research is saving me the effort I no longer care to do.
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Gee Nathan. Maybe we'll find out we're related. :D According to one of our family historians, the first non-African ancestor they traced our lineage back to (maternal side) was a German who unfortunately dealt in the slave trade. Funny thing though is when I got my DNA results, European countries were cited for a total of 10%, Germany was not included.
 
I would like to learn about my father's side of the family. His father died at an early age and my great grandparents raised him. What prompted my dad to turn out the way he did? I know he was an Eagle Scout but outside of that I don't know what kind of person he was other than presumably an undiagnosed narcissist.
 
deaver said:
for many who live in the south, tracing ancestory is difficult because the union burned the courthouses in the southern states during the civil war destroying marriage/birth/deed information. I had an aunt who did some ancestry using what could be found in existing county records and family bibles..
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Ah, maybe that's the reason my husband has no clue as to his ancestry. No one in the family has been able to go back further than his grandfather.
 
Nathan said:
Oh yes, surnames like Jones or Williams(or Smith!) are tough to track. However, on my maternal side the surname Rüdisühli is not only a bit out of the ordinary, as it turns out, most every Rüdisühli in America is related.
Back to afrigeneas: I had made an inquiry about my g.g.(or g.g.g.) grandfather, as I had some indication(census entry?) and a member there recognized the name, and sent me a document listing the whole decendency of slaves from my ancestor.
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I never heard of that website. It does look interesting.
 
OneEyedDiva said:
Gee Nathan. Maybe we'll find out we're related. :D According to one of our family historians, the first non-African ancestor they traced our lineage back to (maternal side) was a German who unfortunately dealt in the slave trade. Funny thing though is when I got my DNA results, European countries were cited for a total of 10%, Germany was not included.
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@OneEyedDiva , It's certainly possible, the ancestors I'm aware of that held slaves were from Rowan County, NC and Gaston Co, NC. Michael Braun was German, but Jacob Mauney was Swiss-French-German.
 
Nathan said:
@OneEyedDiva , It's certainly possible, the ancestors I'm aware of that held slaves were from Rowan County, NC and Gaston Co, NC. Michael Braun was German, but Jacob Mauney was Swiss-French-German.
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Our family was based in the Dalzell and Sumpter areas of S.C. I was born and raised in Jersey, though since many of the family, including my birth mother, grandmother and her brothers (one of who "acquired" me with his wife).
 
Pepper said:
I am 100% Ashkenazi Jew with no mixture whatsoever. I like that. My son is 1/8 native American.
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I've always been interested in genetics and intelligence. As I'm sure you know, Ashkenazi Jews are plagued with several genetic disorders, but are gifted with the highest intelligence of any ethnic group in the world. Coming in second are East Asians, followed in third place by European Caucasians. There is an interesting theory surrounding Ashkenazi intelligence, that you may have heard -- one that involves Eastern European discrimination directed at Jewish immigrants. Always tickles me to think that we have Christian bigots to thank for Albert Einstein.
 
I got bit by the genealogy bug many years ago before searching on the internet was a thing. Boy, is it time consuming. I’ve sort of let go of that interest. But I definitely know from looking on the internet in later years that there is incorrect info. Luckily our local library maintains a very good genealogy room.

More recently, a distant , several times removed, cousin contacted me very excited to share a photo she had found of my paternal grandmother. My grandmother died before I was born but we have several photos of her from the late 1930’s.

The cousin and I met at a restaurant to swap info. I don’t know who the woman in the picture was but she was 100% not my grandmother. The cousin was so proud she could share the photo with me and was insistent the ID was correct. I didn’t want to hurt her feelings ( the southern manners thing) so I didn’t force the issue. Told myself I‘d see what my more immediate cousins thought. All agreed - was not our grandmother.

Then I discovered the distant cousin posted the misidentified photo on a genealogy site. Thought - this cannot stand, I must correct this.

Distant cousin died before I could contact her. At this point I said to heck with it. All my grandmother’s descendants know the truth. So some strange woman’s photo is on the internet with my grandmother’s name.

And this is just one of many ways incorrect info is entered in genealogy sites.
 
Sassycakes said:
My cousin is obsessed with our family's ancestry. He has done so much research on my Dad's side. He found out that we are related to Jimmy Kimmel. Jimmy had an Uncle named Frank Iacono, which is my Dad's name. He also has a cousin Sal Iacono , which is my brother's name, and his cousin Sal has a son named Frankie which my brother Sal has a son named Frankie. I found that weird. He sent a message to Jimmy but never heard back.
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Yes I have through family tree aka Genealogy research. Found an adopted gggrand-mother from the Netherlands on my maternal line as well as French and Celts. Part of the family line on my paternal line was found a very interesting love story of which my father was very proud.

My paternal grandmother was adopted as well, found on the porch of my great-grandparents as a baby with a note:

"My name is Snow, please name me this way when you adopt me. I'm Snowflake Velvet Feather. My parents' love created me but their love and secret wedding were refused and punished as they were from opposite native tribes. They had to give me up or die. You're a good family, hopefully, I'll be a good daughter in time. Thank you!" She was of mixed indigenous roots and married into a third tribe.

I've also English roots. Most generations on both sides were farmers. Lots of vegetables, orchard trees, small berry bushes and animals. For years growing up, there was loads of pickling jars, preserves, jellies, cider and meats. When the last of one maternal line died, so did the food supply. Very sad day. I carried on making preserves and jellies for years with hubby.

Munchkins always love my peach or strawberry preserves and small cucumbers were turned into dill pickles which hubby couldn't get enough of.

I'm a mix bag of various strands of DNA and I'm proud of being known in my family circle as White Feather.
 

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